I don’t have a whole lot of ideas to add here, since it seems pretty clear that the solution is deregulation and there isn’t a whole lot of question about that.
I will add some hard data. The boilermaker’s argument largely concerned California. I have lived in the Democratic People’s Republic of California for 6 years. (I used to say we didn’t deserve the title, but that was back when I thought we were going to implement Prop. 209 and not keep on reelecting Barbara Boxer). Previously I wasn’t paying my own electric bills due to being a student, but now I am. During the summer months, when we had the AC on a lot, I received a 2-month electric bill of $300 for a 3-bedroom apartment. Nothing in my apartment runs on gas with the exception of the heater, but unfortunately one of my roommates is very cold-sensitive and always has the heat on during the winter. The monthly gas bills during the winter are regularly about $75.
The $300 bill worked out to $.20 per kWh. I’m not sure how relatively high that is or how the heck we used that much electricity. About $30 of the bill was various taxes, ‘fees’, etc. By far the largest portion of the bill was the ‘Energy Cost Adjustment Charge’ a charge which goes up and down with the price of gas, which came out to $150 for that bill.
Our most recent two-month bill was $120. In this period we never had the AC on, had the computers on much more rarely, and actively attempted to avoid fans, not use the TV, etc. I am still pretty sure this bill was higher than my parents pay for electricity in their 5 bedroom HOUSE.
Dunno what it’s like in other states, but if it’s a lot better, which I suspect, my de facto secession may be driven by mundane factors alone. The last straw would be if they started regularly cutting power to my refrigerator.
